In the Southern Song period (1127-1279), after
the capital was relocated to Hangzhou because of the loss of Kaifeng and
most of north China to the Jurchen Jin dynasty, court painters continued
to paint landscapes, but favored small formats and more lyrical
treatments. Below is one such large album leaf by the court painter Ma
Yuan (active 1190-1224). Note the poetic couplet
the painter inscribed on this painting. By this time, painters
were frequently exploiting the connections between poetry and painting,
either by making a painting to capture poetic lines or writing a new
poem to bring out features of a painting they had done.

To
see a close up, click here. [In the guide, below]

How does the relatively large human figure affect how we view this
painting?

SOME
THOUGHTS:
The one-corner composition, for which Ma Yuan was famous,
positions the scholar figure as intermediate in the corner of
the picture plane; he serves as the viewer's alter-ego.
There is an established perspective, with the vanishing point
located on a low horizon. Characteristically Song is the
neat fit of elements into small spaces, like architecture or
rocks, to suggest a coherence of space.

Ma Yuan worked in a
courtly, polished style to set forth a scene of romantic
nostalgia and quietude. The simple country settings of his
scholars-in-retreat are ironic in their elegant rusticity, as
they choose an artificial view of the world, certainly not the
one farmers came into contact with on a daily basis.
Ma Yuan's rustic settings were only superficially cut off from
society; the gentlemen that inhabit them are still within reach
of the refinements of culture, as seen in the starched elegance
of their silk robes, servant-attendants, and mannered, effete
gestures.

Crisp, symmetrical
lines indicate the use of a rounded, vertically held brush
(later favored by the literati, as it was closer to that used in
writing).

Close- Up

After Ma Yuan, probably the most successful of the
Southern Song court landscapists was Xia Gui (active c. 1180-1224).
Pure and Remote Views of Mountains and Streams, shown below, is
unusually tall for a handscroll, almost twenty inches in height.

What do you notice about the brushwork Xia Gui used?
How does the fact that this painting was done on paper affect the
impression it makes?